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I've been awaiting a couple of pens from the US. They were sent on 11 January and arrived today! In the meantime I had sent letters to correspondents in the US and they had taken the normal time - around a week to ten days. Is that the general experience, that mail from the the US to the UK is very slow but just about normal in the other direction?
My experience remains varied between the US and UK, from a month down to week for first class envelopes.
I've had a similar experience and was waiting for a very long time for some ink samples to arrive in the UK but letters seem to take less time both ways.
Oh well. It can only get better. I hope.
I'm seeming to have few problems sending stuff TO the US, with pretty much normal delivery times (mostly tracked, but a fair amount of regular airmail as well). Getting things FROM the US is horrendous. Things seem to eventually reach an airport, and then just sit there for weeks on end. My best result in recent months has been 3 weeks (but then I got clobbered by VAT/duty/ransom charge this end) and I think the worst has been about 3 months. Nothing has actually disappeared altogether (yet).
I get the impression that the problem is USPS and as a result most people I buy from are now not using them at all for international stuff, which means it costs a lot more to get things shipped in the first place.
It is clear that the changes being made by the USPS (under its controversial Postmaster General) are manifesting in basic first class domestic deliveries.Quote:
Originally Posted by mizgeorge
For example, I haven't seen Postage Due envelopes and labels for many years, and now I've gotten two in weeks. One was a small envelope received from a pen friend containing an item that pushed thickness in excess of the 1/4-inch limit (bumping from $1 to $4.90) and another for a similar thick small envelope containing a defective Apple cable that was returned to me (the Best Buy store refused to pay the postage due for the warranty return). I have an official USPS gauge to manually measure the thickness, and the envelope passed. I assume a USPS laser device thought differently.
Four postcards from one sender in Chicago dated from Jan 28 to Feb 21 all arrived at my address in Pennsylvania on Feb 23. A letter from a fellow Geek less than 50 miles/80 kilometers away, mailed Jan 27, did not arrive until Feb 22. Meanwhile, letters from California in the same period took 4 to 6 days.
The USPS is undergoing changes that defy efforts to predict when first class mail will arrive. Priority mail seems exempt from these disruptions.
I recently had this experience with a package from Goulet:
Attachment 59344
As you can see it was 6 days traipsing across Virginia... :smow:
Recently I had a first class envelope take a month to go from Ohio to Maine.
Fred is totally on it: while there may have been the occasional sluggish parcel or letter a couple years ago, since DeJoy took over last year it has been abysmal. I've made good friends at my local PO and it has weighed on them heavily because they take the brunt of the customer ire even though the problems emanate far, far up the chain.
There are governmental efforts to oust this grifting clown, but it is going to take a while. I look for better days by the end of the year, but I"m an incurable optimist.
My experience using standard mail has been:
Maryland to Maryland = 3 weeks
Maryland to NYC = 2 weeks
NYC to Maryland = 1 month
NJ to Maryland = 2 days
Maryland to NJ = 2 weeks
VA to Maryland = 3 days
Maryland to Va = 2 weeks
TX to Maryland = 1 week
Maryland to TX = 2 weeks
Maryland to CA = 2 weeks
CA to Maryland = 1 month
USA to UK = 2 weeks
UK to USA = 1 month
Turkey to USA = 1 month
HK to USA = 1 month
Palestine to USA = 1 month
Kuwait to USA = 1 month
USA to Kuwait = 1 month
The failure point in my area is "Baltimore, Maryland".
The Mail depot there has had a lack of employees available to process the mail, and even the temporary workers they have brought in have left the facility because of constant COVID-19 outbreaks.
Sadly, there is no point in the mail path where I can get around that depot if mail is going to or coming from the west coast, New England or over the atlantic and pacific. The only path where things work right, is sending and receiving mail from/to the south.
The mail has reverted back to an ancient time and length of delivery periods.
Is this the new norm...who can say.
All I know is...it sucks.
that dude is an assQuote:
Originally Posted by Jon Szanto
The issue with the slow US mail is, in large part, due to on-line training of horses how to swim. Back in the day, horses were trained to swim from the USA to UK by actual people whereas in the past year they have had to learn it on-line and it takes longer for horses to absorb the information. Oh wait, the Pony Express died out about 150 years ago. :shocked: I am sure the USPS and others will blame it on the CV. That being said, I wonder why a small envelop mailed to me from Texas to Massachusetts sat at my local postal center for 11 days before it made it across town. The beauty of tracking is one can see where the breakdown occurs.
Wouldn't it reduce expense to allow unprofitable first class envelopes destined for the same region to accumulate as one shipment before sending it onwards? "First Class," of course. That seems to be the scheme for mail from Chicago, Illinois to Carlisle, Pennsylvania...again.Quote:
Originally Posted by Roe D Hym
Some of it is absences due to Covid-19, and the greater part is DeJoy's policy refusing to hire temporary employees and directing the removal of supposedly "outdated" sorting machines. All that on top of long-standing issues at some sorting / processing centers.
Mail from San Diego to here in the Western burbs of Cleveland takes only three days.
Anything going through the sorting / processing center in Akron takes longer, including Priority Mail. A package of supplements for Manny that the vet Priority Mailed with one-day service from Lorain about 20 miles west of here took a week to get here. Fortunately I was able to have Amazon direct deliver someone while we twiddled our thumbs and paws waiting for the mailed envelope.
Last week I sent a flat rate envelope from Lakewood to downtown Cleveland using Priority Mail Express (what used to be Express Mail). The clerk said that the USPS no longer guarantees delivery. Although I remember my Crosby Stills Nash and Young, I asked why, and she said it was because of the weather.
A letter dated June 3, 2020 mailed from South Africa arrived on Saturday, February 27, 2021.
An envelope of PTSD and sheets of $2 Inverted Jenny stamps that the USPS Stamp Fulfillment Center in Kansas City mailed on February 25 arrived today, March 1. (As the Inverted Jenny stamps are a more colorful alternative to the $2 Lady Liberty stamps, I prefer to use them for overseas letters)
The President nominated three people to the Board of Governors. When they come aboard, let's hope they send DeJoy packing.
Things are looking up. Two postcards, one from the same town as above in the next county (50 mi/80km) and the other from New York City (200mi/320km) took two days to arrive.
A letter from Pennsylvania took nine days to come here. About normal.
oh that's not bad at all! Im in PA. My letters to Texas sometimes go into a black hole. Other times, it's just a few days. Funny when letters overseas arrive quicker than within the states :)Quote:
Originally Posted by eachan